Donuts and Details: Preparing Oral Presentations

Dr. Kody Frey

Assistant Professor | School of Information Science

Who Am I?

T. Kody Frey

  • Asst. Professor in School of Information Science
  • Delivered over 50 regional, national, and international conference presentations
  • Expertise in speech training, assessment, student skill development, and research methods
  • Teach technical communication skills to first-year STEM students and PhD courses in instructional communication / research methods

Public Speaking Questionnaire

Let’s go over your responses…

Speaking Experiences

Presentations

Seminars

Poster presentations

Lab meetings

Conference presentations

Banquet speeches

Fraternity president

Organization president

Work meetings

ASABE conference

Research presentations

Extracurricular activities

Presenting instructions

Advisor meetings

Comfort Level

Do you feel comfortable speaking to an audience of researchers in your field?

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pie title
    "Yes" : 5
    "No" : 8

For the most part, the group does not feel too comfortable with this audience.

Example Fears

“Lack of confidence in my knowledge, the pressure of being in front of a knowledgeable group.”

“I’m afraid of not explaining my topic well enough. Also, I’m afraid of leaving out details or not thinking about certain details that my professors may think are important.”

“Having my peers and professors call me out on misinformation.”

“At this point, I am nervous about my level of knowledge/being unable to answer questions that mature researchers might ask. In general though, the speaking itself doesn’t make me nervous.”

Example Fears

“…I always feel unexperienced and unqualified to stand and present in front of researchers that have had ample experience and work in the field. Also since their primary task is to ask questions, I feel like I need to know every component of the topic from large to small, which is quite overwhelming. I feel quite inadequate if I cannot answer a question, which then makes me less comfortable speaking.”

Feelings

Career Plans

  • Teacher
  • Lab work
  • Data Analysis
  • R & D
  • Academia
  • College professor (x 4)
  • Commodities broker
  • Industry

Comparison

Strengths:

Having confidence

Incorporating humor

Creating and organizing slides

Engaging delivery

Translating complex information

Being sociable (not a robot)

Identifying key ideas

Enjoying the process

Projecting voice

Strong evidence

Weakness:

Composure

Losing train of thought

Anxiety

Speaking slowly

Confidence

Naturalness

Eye contact

Rambling

Answering questions

The Result?

Public speaking will be important in all your careers

If nothing else, being a confident speaker can help you stand out.

Big Picture

Our goals

Tackling Anxiety and Apprehension

  • Understanding fears and learning to manage them

Defining the Donut

  • Defining your objective and actively preparing

Presenting as Performance

  • Developing your identity as a speaker and handling Q&A

Tackling Anxiety and Apprehension

Understanding fears and learning to manage them

Situating the Talk

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two? Does that seem right? To the average person that means that if they have to go to a funeral, they’d be better off in the casket than giving the eulogy.”

  • Jerry Seinfeld

What is Communication Apprehension?

Defined as “a situation- specific social anxiety that arises from the real or anticipated enactment of an oral presentation” (Bodie, 2010, p. 72)

Where does it come from?

Often manifests due to the presence of certain traits like a speech impediment or monotoned voice.

In 7th grade, my classmates called me ‘Lispy’!

We become socialized into fearing certain situations, audiences, or contexts.

EX: Meeting your partners parents for the first time??

Uncertainty resulting from how to effectively communication or analyze an audience.

AKA many of us are never taught how to speak!

When does it affect us?

Effects

Internal Effects

  • Physiological
  • Often unknown to audience but known to speaker

External Effects

  • Behavioral
  • Often unknown to speaker but visible to audience

Strategies for managing apprehension

Densensitization helps you become comfortable

Allows you to embrace nerves rather than retreat

Ask yourself why this fear is irrational

Think of what you have done to eliminate it

Picture yourself being successful

Manifests as self-fulfilling prophecy

Remember the training you have received

Classes, experiences, and mentors

Preparing with Donuts

Defining your objective and actively preparing

Planning Your Story

Step 1: Consider the donut

If the donut is your field, the hole is the gap you’re trying to fill.

  • Your research question(s)
  • Motivate audience to listen
  • Focus on what we do not know

Planning Your Story

Step 2: Analyze your audience

Consider the following questions:

  • What do they already know?
  • Are they required to be here?
  • What do we have in common?
  • What do they want to know

Step 3: Identify your throughline

What is the invisible thread that binds your story together?

  • The scientific method
  • A central question
  • An area of study
  • A conference theme?

Planning Your Story

Step 4: Analyze Your audience

Use analogies and little jargon

  • After assessing your audience and identifying your throughline, you can choose language that is appropriate.
  • Avoid specialized language and use terms that are familiar.

Step 5: End with a clear conclusion

You should always:

  • Identify what we know now that we did not know before.
  • Articulate where the research goes next.
  • Make it memorable!

Complex Topics

You Try

Think of a research project or topic you are interested in.

How would you explain this to a group of 2 to 4 year olds?

Quantum Physics…for babies?

Chris Ferrie - PhD in Applied Mathematics

Topics range across:

  • General relatively
  • Bayesian statistics
  • Electromagnetism
  • Robotics
  • Neural networks

Baby University

What specific strategies do the books take to explain their subject matter?

Are they effective? Why or why not?

The Hourglass

  • Tell them what you’re going to tell them…
  • Tell them…
  • Tell them what you told them…

What’s Missing??

BE SELECTIVE in your details.

  • Highlight critical information
  • Avoid overwhelming listeners
  • Keep literature review to a minimum

Presenting as Performance

Developing your identity as a speaker

Roots in identity

View your talk as a performance of your identity.

It takes time, preparation, and practice to convey the image you want to the audience.

Delivery

Remember that energy does not equal effectiveness.

  • Match your nonverbals to your tone.
  • Make eye contact with both sides of the room.
  • Stand to engage the audience.
  • Avoid self-handicapping.
  • Practice with keywords.
  • Take a chance!

Delivery

The audience does not want to be bored.

Utilize immediacy and speaking to them directly is engaging.

Attempting to engage with them grants you more leniency for mistakes.

Visual Aids

The visual aid complements your presentation.

  • Avoid trying to do too much.
  • Remain consistent in structure and design.
  • Try to avoid skipping slides.
  • Use it to define complex ideas.
  • Show, don’t tell.
  • Put the most important info in the top left.

Visual Aids

The slides give the audience context.

If you want them to pay attention to you, only use images.

The 7 Deadly Sins

UK Branding

UKY has a variety of professional, branded materials appropriate for your talks:

https://www.uky.edu/prmarketing/branding-resources/brand-assets

The Hourglass

  • Tell them what you’re going to tell them…
  • Tell them…
  • Tell them what you told them…

Scenes in a story

flowchart LR
    A((Premise))
    B((Core Conflict))
    C((Tension))
    D((Turning Point))
    E((Resolution))
    A-->B
    B-->C
    C-->D
    D-->E
  • Premise: What is the donut hole?
  • Core Conflict: Brief backstory to get audience invested
  • Tension: What are the implications?
  • Turning Point: How will we follow to relieve the tension?
  • Resolution: Resolve the conflict through your vision

Your throughline connects the pieces

And then?

Recap

Learn to manage anxiety by turning irrational fears into rational thoughts.

Apprehension is naturally - channel it!

Remember the hole in the field that you are trying to fill.

Adapt the content to the audience.

Think about how your presentation reflects the identity you want.

Turn your talk into a story

Speaking is hard.

No one expects you to be perfect right away. Embrace the mistakes because they’ve happened to everyone.

The Conscious Competence Model

Thanks!

What questions do you have?

Dr. T. Kody Frey

tkfr222@uky.edu

317 Little Library

@TKFrey

| @TKFrey | tkodyfrey.github.io/CAER